Television interview with Minister Butler, ABC News Breakfast – 16 July

JAMES GLENDAY, HOST: Let’s bring in the Federal Health Minister, Mark Butler, who is in Adelaide now. Minister, welcome back to News Breakfast.
 
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: Good morning, James.
 
GLENDAY: First of all, can I just get your reaction to the death of Bradley John Murdoch this morning?
 
BUTLER: A bit like the Chief Minister, there's not much reason to mourn the loss of Bradley Murdoch, but it's another opportunity to mourn the loss of a young life, Peter Falconio, and to grieve with a family that still doesn't have that closure. Still don't know where the remains of their loved one has laid for so many years now. Just an awful tragedy, a young life snuffed out at that age.
 
GLENDAY: A year ago, you banned recreational vapes. What does the evidence show? Do you think fewer people are now vaping?
 
BUTLER: Remember when we came to government three years ago this was exploding, literally exploding. The rates every year were skyrocketing, not just increasing but skyrocketing, particularly among young people, children and teenagers. And schools were telling us it was now the number one behavioural issue that they were facing in their school communities. Parents were outraged. What we've seen since we took our tough action is we've seized millions, as your news headlines showed, but also fewer young people are vaping.
 
Fewer young people are smoking cigarettes as well, which is really pleasing because obviously there was a concern that there'd be a shift from vaping to smoking cigarettes. And they're being exposed to fewer positive messages about vaping. They were being inundated with pro-vaping messages on social media. That has more than halved in the last 12 or 18 months as well. We know we've got a long way to go. This is a tough fight against some pretty tough opponents; Big Tobacco, organised crime is still determined to make money out of this public health menace. But I'm pleased that we look like we've turned the corner.
 
GLENDAY: I wanted to just ask about something you mentioned there. Opponents of your ban have always said that if vapes were banned, more young people who are currently vaping could switch back to cigarettes. There are various surveys out about this. Are you confident that that's not happening?
 
BUTLER: It’s still fairly early days, but there have been now a number of surveys. This Gen Vape study, which is done out of the University of Sydney, funded by the Commonwealth and by the New South Wales Government, supported by the Cancer Council is highly reputable. It's shown since we put that ban in place, over a number of waves of research, fewer young people vaping, fewer young people smoking. There's also a long-term study done out of here in Adelaide which has shown that vaping rates have dropped very markedly in South Australia, a state where there's probably a higher level of enforcement than any other part of the country. It's still early days, but I am confident that we have seen that peak of vaping behind us and we're starting to see a reduction, particularly among children and teenagers, which was our primary focus.
 
But in no way am I sanguine about this. I know this is a really, really tough fight and we've got a lot more to do, not just in the area of vaping, but illicit tobacco as well, which is probably now the biggest threat we have to the largest public health objective we have as a country, which is to stamp out smoking. Still the biggest preventable killer of Australians.
 
GLENDAY: Just on another issue, have you had any more conversations with your US counterparts about potential tariffs on pharmaceutical imports?
 
BUTLER: Now, we'll be doing that through our trade portfolio. Obviously, officials are working very, very hard on this. We've made our position clear as a government from the health portfolio that we are deeply, deeply attached and protective of our Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. In no way will we be willing to negotiate around our PBS that gives Australians access to cutting-edge medicines at affordable prices, but the announcement over the last little -
 
GLENDAY: Do you think the President's serious? Or is this a thought bubble or bluster? What's your actual view on these comments?
 
BUTLER: I don't know what's in the US President's mind. Obviously, they are being lobbied, as other US Presidents have been for many years by the US big pharma industry, which wants not just Australia's scheme, but other schemes like it around the world that deliver affordable medicines, that use the power of government to negotiate good prices for their citizens for medicines. They want to see that freed up. They want to see their profits increased. That's been the case for decades and decades, where big pharma has been lobbying us administrations, going back to when John Howard was negotiating the US Free Trade Agreement with George W Bush. This is not new. It's probably of a different scale, I think it's fair to say, but we'll just take a calm, considered approach that protects the national interest here, and the national interest has a good, solid PBS right at its core.
 
GLENDAY: Yeah, just before I let you go, obviously the Prime Minister's in in China talking trade, things like that. When the US threatens tariffs on things like pharmaceutical imports which as you say is close to the hearts of a lot of Australians, does that erode support for the US Australia relationship?
 
BUTLER: I think this has obviously been a pretty tumultuous several months, particularly in the area of trade, and our exports to the US are important. Of every $20 we earn in export income to support Australian jobs, one of those $20 comes from America. I make the point $5 comes from China, which is why this visit by the PM has been so important, securing those dollars, as we have, by lifting $20 billion worth of exports like beef and wine and lobster to China, but also expanding those opportunities, which is what the PM's been doing over the last several days. In tourism, in steel inputs, and also overnight we're here in apple exports as well.
 
GLENDAY: Health Minister Mark Butler, we appreciate your time this morning. Thanks for joining us.
 
BUTLER: Thanks, James.